Credit crunch cookbook?

[Laugs]

Can anyone recommend a good recipe book for hard times?!

I have a book by Delia Smith called Frugal Food, which is great except it's from the 70s so the recipes are things like brains and faggots... yum.

I'm getting sick of all these celebrity chefs telling me I must use the very best of everything, when I can't afford that. I need a book that is honest about which ingredients don't need to be of the highest quality and also recipes using cheaper cuts of meat.

Any ideas? Thanks!

havent got a clue sorry. will be watching this thread though

i sometimes do ham pasta. i use tesco own make pasta sauce, original tomat or spicy pepper, sliced ham (whichever i can afford or bacon) and muchrooms. fry the mushrooms and the ham and sauce untill they are warm and then mix with cooked pasta. thats a cheapy meal if you are stuck for ideas.

you're probably better off getting ideas from MN. Start a thread asking for cheap meal ideas. actually if you do a search i think there may have been one before... I'll check

this might give you a few ideas

i think there's a better one though...still looking.

miaou did a great thread on saving money that was the 2nd one. i can't find the first one. it might have been in chat which is a shame because it was brilliant.

HTH!

This is a good book.

I think the best thing would be to save your money and use the internet to search for recipes, starting right here on MN.

If you've got a recipe that calls for expensive ingredients, just substitute with cheaper ones. If you're not confident enough to do this alone just ask on MN and we'll soon help you!

nosh 4 students, I can't do links to amazon on this phone, but i got it to teach myself to cook, it has some great cheap recipes, i love the Monday pie. I use this book more than the others I have. Though if you're a proficient cook you may find it a bit basic.

I have the BBC Good Food 101 Cheap Eats. It's a little tiny book but easily flick-through-able!!

thank you for the link, watsthestory!

Some great threads here, thanks! Definitely found some inspiration.

I do still quite like recipe books though - great for flicking through with a cup of tea, I don't find the internet the same. I might try frogs' suggestion, although from that amazon link I've just noticed that Frugal Food has been u0pdated in 1997.

I'll get myself on ebay and see wht I can find!

notes thread, toread later.
bet this will be a popular thread!

wtsthestory, do you find this cheaper?

I have always just bought whatever I've found on special offer, but from reading threads on here I found most people think menu planning is cheaper, so I've started trying to do that.

One of my most used cook books is the Pauper's Cook Book by Joscelin Dimbleby - I have used it regularly for more than 20 years & would def recommend it